Royally Yours

Chapter 4

Amara

The night that my dad had had a heart attack would go on record as one of the worst nights of my life.

I had been in a meeting at the time when the calls from Ana began. I'd ignored them at first. I thought it was just another one of her teenage "emergencies" and had answered them enough to know that they were almost never real emergencies. I figured I would get back to her after my meeting.

Then, I'd started getting frantic calls from my best friend Ely as well.

That was when I knew something was wrong.

I stepped out of the meeting, almost dreading having to call her back. Was this it? Had my mother finally lost the battle with cancer? Was she gone forever?

Eventually, I got the nerve to call Ely back, knowing it would be preferable to talking to my sister. And then she told me, in typical plain-spoken Ely manner, that my father had a heart attack.

I distinctly remember the feeling I had. It was like an out of body experience, almost like an abyss had opened up and swallowed me. I was frozen in time, unable to think, speak or react for several minutes. This was it, I thought, The feeling of the world ending on me.

I didn't realize until later, after my coworkers had gathered around me, that I had been wailing for about 5 minutes.

My parents had both recovered, and while my mother was now a year in remission, none of us had ever been the same.

The vulnerability of my foundation was exposed to me on that day, and I knew just how quickly and easily I could lose everything. And so I didn't take any risks. Didn't take on anything I knew I could potentially cause me harm. In other words, I didn't do anything dangerous.

But texting Ben last night had definitely been dangerous.

We ended up talking about everything and nothing in particular. He had asked about my family, and I had given vague replies. We had avoided topics involving the kiss. Everything else, it seemed, was on the table. It was all so fun, I almost didn't remember that he was making me speak to him and even reinitiated conversation several times during the night. Perhaps, there was definitely a part of me that relished the danger.

After my fifth yawn the next morning, Ely commented, " Late night?"

I shook my head. I didn't want to admit to my best friend and roommate that I had spent all night texting with Ben and had only fallen asleep 3 hours before my alarm was set to go off. Not that Ely would disapprove (as she knew Ben from school and liked him well enough) but she would probably tease me endlessly about it.

" Just tired," I said taking another sip of tea. Our tiny apartment on the outskirts of London overlooked the overpass and it was close to congested. I would need to head out soon to catch my bus.

" Hmm, maybe it had something to do with a certain Ben with two hearts that you spent all night speaking with on your phone."

I looked up in shock and caught the smirk on my friend's caramel-colored face. " You went through my phone?"

"Duh. With you giggling every five minutes at half past midnight, what, you think I'm not going to sneak in and look through your phone? What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"

"One that actually respects my privacy? " I said dryly.

Elly feigned confusion, scrunching up her eyebrows. "Privacy? What's that? I don't think I've heard of it. "

I shook my head. I really shouldn't be surprised because it was precisely the sort of thing Ely did. It was actually a joke to think I could even hide something from my oldest friend, especially not someone as dogged and tenacious and Elikem Darko.